Maryann Kyle

Maryann Kyle has dedicated her professional life to guiding singers and teachers in their pursuit not only of exceptional singing, but also captivating performance. In addition to her active studio of performers she also actively mentors over thirty teachers of voice and theatre in various universities across the United States, and her students can be found on the stages of the finest opera and musical theatre companies, conservatories and training programs across the globe.

Kyle remains an active performer of multiple genres of music and has shared the concert stage with some of world’s greatest artists including Denyce Graves, William Warfield, Timothy Noble and Marietta Simpson. She has appeared as a soloist on the pop music stage with famed artists  Patti Labelle, Patti Austin, Dionne Warwick, Ann Nesby and Vesta Williams. Kyle’s one-woman-show, Sondheim in the City, premiered in NYC at the Laurie Beechman Theatre/West Bank Café in 2011 followed by her concert entitled Apparitions and her upcoming recital, Reminiscence presented by Opera Mississippi.

Specializing in the teaching belt, power belt and high belt technique, Kyle has had a tremendous success in training singers and teachers in the best and healthiest use of their voice, and in integrating the function of singing with their character and physical acting process. In addition, she has developed a curriculum in musical theatre and commercial music pedagogy and literature which she presents as a part of the Alabama School of the Arts Artistic Development Series and the International Performing Arts Institute Teaching Fellowship.  This acoustically sound training for athletic vocal technique and style is easily connected to classical vocal training while maintaining an authentic musical theatre and commercial music sound.

Kyle’s students have performed leading roles with New Orleans Opera, Seattle Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Oper Berlin, English National Opera, Virginia Opera, San Francisco Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Sarasota Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Florida Grand Opera and St. Louis Opera Theatre to name a few.  They have also garnered numerous awards including top placements in national and international competitions and apprenticeships with Seattle Opera, Lake George Opera Festival, Aspen Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Ohio Light Opera, Brevard, Wolf Trap, Ashlawn Opera, Opera North, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Saratoga, Sarasota Opera, Des Moines Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, Savannah VOICE Festival and continue to pursue their studies in major conservatories and schools including Juilliard, Indiana University, San Francisco Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory, Oklahoma City University, Florida State University, Fordham University, Louisiana State University, the University of Illinois and New England Conservatory of Music.

Kyle is the director of the Teaching Fellowship Program with the International Performing Arts Institute. In her free time, Kyle enjoys riding her Yamaha V-Star 950 motorcycle, gardening, spending time with friends and mothering her five shih tzu pups.

Michael Bunchman

Pianist Michael Bunchman maintains a fulfilling schedule as a collaborative pianist with  both singers and instrumentalists throughout the United States and abroad. He is  currently on faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi as the director of the  Collaborative Piano Program, where he is honored to coach, teach and guide the next  generation of collaborative pianists in both vocal and instrumental repertoire. He has  given masterclasses at such institutions as Arizona State University, University of Texas  at Austin, Texas Christian University, Illinois State University, Troy and the University of  Albany to name a few. Prior to working at the University of Southern Mississippi, Dr.  Bunchman served as coordinator of Collaborative Piano at Truman State University  from 2015 to 2017.  

Dr. Bunchman maintains an active performance schedule outside of his work in  academia. He has performed collaborative recitals with members of the Atlanta  Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony  and soloist from the Metropolitan Opera, to name a few. He has spent five seasons as  a principal coach and collaborative pianist at the Utah Festival Opera and Musical  Theater, as well as appointments with the Natchez Festival of Music and Las Cruces  Symphony Orchestra. His many collaborations with opera companies also include  Santa Barbara Opera, Opera Saratoga, the Princeton Festival and El Paso Opera.  Active as a concerto soloist, Dr. Bunchman has performed with the Festival Música nas  Montanhas, in Poços de Caldas, Brazil, Ridgefield Symphony, the Breckenridge Music  Festival, the Antara Ensemble in New York City, the Utah Festival Opera Orchestra and  the National Repertory Orchestra.  

In the summer of 2017 Dr. Bunchman had the honor to be counted among the  amazingly diverse and talented group of artists of A Prairie Home Companion, hosted  by Garrison Keillor, on their multi-city European cruise. In addition, Dr. Bunchman has  served as the Director of Music and Collaborative Piano at the International Performing  Arts institute in Bavaria, Germany since 2018. This is an intensive three-week festival  for collaborative pianists and singers.  

Dr. Bunchman holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of  Colorado at Boulder, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Peabody  Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano Performance from the  University of Texas at Austin. He spent three summers at the prestigious Aspen Music  Festival. His teachers have included Anne Epperson, Rick Rowley, Marian Hahn,  Joseph Kalichstein, Antoinette Perry, Adrienne Sielaff and Doris Pridonoff-Lehnert.